Knitting Yarn and Life

How To Adapt A Sock Pattern

True to form I am still procrastinating over the list of things that need to get done. In honor of that, I have cast on socks for the sock adaptation tutorial.

After losing myself in the Yarn Vault for a period of time (total glee for Yarn Rascal), I selected Jill Draper’s Splendor Sock Yarn in the Glacier colorway. After I untangled Yarn Rascal from his three chosen skeins, I searched through my books for a sock pattern. With a foot circumference of 7.5 inches (19) cm, almost all sock patterns don’t fit so I have a wide selection.

I chose the “Dead Simple Lace Socks” from Wendy Johnson’s book Socks From The Toe Up. The smallest size for this sock measured 8 inches (20.5) cm or 8.5 inches (21.5) cm in circumference. Way too big for me.

The first truth about adapting a sock pattern to fit your foot size is throw out all the numbers in the original pattern. The designer’s gauge no longer matters. Your gauge becomes the ruler. Thus, you need to knit up a sample. It’s at this point I start to whimper. I don’t want to “waste” time knitting a sample. I want to knit the darn sock. The adult in me must win this tug of war in order to produce a sock I can wear.

Next step: Knit a sample in the round. (I know, this stinks.) Cast on half the total amount of stitches of the size one up from yours. (It could be worse, I could have to cast on all the stitches.) For me, that was the size 8. Knit at least 1 inch (2.5) cm in stockinette stitch. (If the adult in you is strong knit 2 inches (5) cm for a more accurate gauge.) Then knit 2 or 3 inches (5 or 8) cm in the stitch pattern as written. (This is not too bad. I get a chance to see the stitch pattern and see if I like knitting it.) This accomplishes two things: 1) It gives you your gauge over St st and your gauge over the stitch pattern. 2) You become intimate with the stitch pattern making it easier to see what can be left out and what must remain if you are going to be happy with the results.

If the pattern is heavy on cables or has lots of twisted and crossed stitches the fabric is going to pull in. If the pattern is lacy it’s going to want to expand. Look at the difference in width between the stockinette section and the pattern section you just knitted. It will tell you whether you need to add or subtract stitches to your cast on count.

To find your cast on count measure the number of stockinette stitches over 1 inch (2.5) cm. This answer is the number of stitches you’re getting per inch. (I know that in reality it is best to measure gauge over 4 inches (10) cm. But I’d really like to start the sock.) Take this number and multiply it by your foot circumference number. Your foot circumference is measured around the ball of the foot, the padded area just below where your toes end. Stitches per inch times foot circumference equals the total number of stitches for your sock.

The second truth about adapting a sock pattern to fit a smaller or larger foot size: You’re not going to replicate the entire pattern as you see it in the picture. Compromises can range from simply losing a number of pattern repeats and having to insert stitch pattern fillers to losing a chunk of the main stitch pattern(s).

With the “Dead Simple Lace Socks”, the adaption was a loss of the number of lace pattern repeats as well as the placement of the lace portion around the sock. Whereas the original pattern had 3 lace repeats for its smallest size on the instep, I can only fit two.

My next decision was where to place them. Did I want them on either side of a center panel of stockinette stitch? Or did I want to widen the look out and place them on either end of the instep? I chose the latter because I didn’t want them guarding the center of the sock like sentinels. Instead, I wanted them to be part of the rhythm and flow of the sock design as Ms. Johnson had captured in her original version.

The more complicated the stitch pattern the more you’ll need to play around and adjust it to fit the stitch count of your sock. When trying to make a pattern fit, remember you have the front of the sock, two sides, and the back of the sock. A pattern works best if it flows with some sort of rhythm around the sock.

Yarn Rascal would be unmanageable! If he can’t get his daily fix of yarn mauling he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He’ll sit for hours rubbing his face in a skein of yarn and touching it with his paws. When I am particularly interested in watching a tv show, Yarn Rascal is given a skein of yarn.

Yeah, I should have explained that. I sample the one size larger so I have a visual reference of what I am dealing with in order to cut it down to my size. I count how many stitches I need to lose. Then I start playing. Can the stitches be removed from the sides without obvious disruption of the pattern? Sometimes not. Sometimes I need to move a pattern off center or on center. Sometimes I need to cut into the stitch pattern itself and lose other stitches to stockinette or purl stitches.

So with the pattern before me as a unified whole, in my mind I start to dissect it for a place or places where I can remove stitches without cutting into the stitch pattern and still have it work with resting spots for moving knit stitches around my dpns to avoid ladders.

Often I have to cut into the stitch pattern. When this happens I have to step back and “learn” the pattern by studying it and figuring out what function each stitch in that particular pattern performs. Then I need to figure out what it is that I most like about that stitch pattern and can I find a way of saving that detail. When adapting there are somethings I can keep and others I can’t. I need to be clear on what I really must save. Sometimes once I see what needs to be thrown out I realize that I am not that keen on what remains and I ditch it and move on.

I have a pair of lace socks that has 3 different stitch patterns, actually I think it’s 4. I love them. They are not in my size but they are in the public domain as a free pattern. I was thinking of using them to show how to adapt a sock pattern to your own size. The only problem is I don’t know how close to the original my adaptation will be in the end as I am already thinking of substituting two stitch patterns out for ones that are entirely different.

I am going to revisit the adaption topic in my next post to show the socks I did adapt and the ones I first chose but then discarded because I found I didn’t like the stitches I was left with. I had just finished a twisted stitch sock pattern of my own and I didn’t want to work with twisted stitches again. I’m in a lace mode for some reason.

A knitter and designer, I also copy edit and tech edit knitting patterns for other designers. I also enjoy crochet. I am an animal lover. Randi is my little Bichon, named after one of my amazing oncology doctors.